What Might a Few Tweaks Do for You?

Dave Olson and I were having an email conversation. We were discussing the state of the blogosphere and other important world-saving, super-hero stuff, when in the middle he said this.

I’m wondering if you might be able to help me out. I paid attention when you highlighted my post last week and you said:

“Bet you can apply that to design, branding, and marketing your blog”

I’ve posted an article asking for some feedback on the design and branding of my site. I would really appreciate it if you had a few minutes that you could take a look at it and give me any feedback you might have.

So I invited Dave to get tweaked Above the Fold.

Here’s how the Above the Fold Tweak Process works.

I make a Ã¢â¬ÅbeforeÃ¢â¬Â screenshot.

We talk through some changes for readability.

The blogger makes the changes.

We talk while the tweaks are in process.

I take an Ã¢â¬ÅafterÃ¢â¬Â screenshot and share the results in a post.

What Would a BRAINPRINT Look Like?

In a comment over at Performancing on March 6, Troy Shanahan said “I wouldn’t mind you having a skim over my blog… but it’s so badly laid out that I really don’t expect too much improvement.” It sure sounded like he thought his blog was a mess.

I thought to myself, here’s a guy who seemed like he felt in trouble, but I went and looked. His only problem was an over used template that he hadn’t made his own. It seemed to me that a few changes would make a big difference . . .

So I invited Troy to get tweaked Above the Fold. Here’s how the Above the Fold Tweak Process works.

I make a Ã¢â¬ÅbeforeÃ¢â¬Â screenshot.

We talk through some changes for readability.

The blogger makes the changes.

We talk while the tweaks are in process.

I take an Ã¢â¬ÅafterÃ¢â¬Â screenshot and share the results in a post.

Tweaking BRAINPRINT

Before

Unfortunately I took this before shot of the About page on Troy’s blog. I hope you’ll be able to transfer what you see from this page to his new home page. I didn’t realize that until after we were well in the process. My mistake — sorry.

Three Tweaks that We Agreed Upon

In this series, we concentrate only three important tweaks for each blog that is featured. On TroyÃ¢â¬â¢s blog, those three tweaks were these.

We would put up the header he had designed.

We’d adjust the template to work with the header.

We’d decide on a color palette that worked.

Troy and I started with the header. What we did first was go to the byet comics site and look at what’s there. We looked at that header and back through some of the comics. Somehow we got on the idea of doing a collage around one character. Troy went off and did that.

When he came back with the header in place, all I could say was “Wow! What a difference!”

It took awhile to figure out how to get WordPress not to show the type for the name of his blog and the subhead. Finally Troy realized the answer was to use display: none; in the style sheet.

The next adjustment was choosing the color palette to match the header. Adjusting the “a link” to green. We used a color tool to get the right one. H2 sidebar heads went to the right shade of orange.

Great Design Doesn’t Shout

From the eyes of a naive, intelligent customer, Escape from Cubicle Nation is not just great content. It’s also reader-supporting design done well. Let me point out 11 Things so elegantly right above the fold.

The title says what the blog is about.

The tag line makes the promise even clearer.

I can see who the writer is.

The About Page and Contact information are right there.

Any free offers are easy to find.

The main content is what draws my eye.

The content is supported by a fabulous photo that draws me in.

The title and typeface are readable and all parts of the post are identifiable.

Everything is where I expect it to be.

All of the pieces that go together seem to hang as one unit.

It’s easy to see how to subscribe by email, RSS, or even podcast.

If you’re looking for a model of clean, reader-friendly design, follow the 11 Things that Escape from Cubicle Nation does well. All that and what you notice is the great content. Exactly how a great design works — great design doesn’t shout.

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